Dick Larson has a very nice editorial in the April 2007 OR/MS Today on the use of videos in disseminating information about our field. One big point he makes is that the Edelman videos, a tremendous resource for our field, are not easily and freely available. This frustrates the heck out of me too! I do not understand why videos of the contestants are not up on YouTube right after the competition. There are some issues of ownership of the various INFORMS entities, but some INFORMS President will eventually be able to work them out and suddenly the world will be able to see how amazing we are.
Until then, Larson has another article on MIT World, where MIT professors give lectures on various topics. Arnie Barnett and Yossi Sheffi, along with Larson, are among those giving OR-oriented talks.
Incidentally, there are some “Operations Research” videos at YouTube but only 8 at the moment. Let’s see if things improve in the next year.
Maybe market group at Informs should give various ideas to advertise our field. 🙂
Btw, there should be a prize on people or group who have significant contribution on advertising our field.